Title: Dear Adam
Author: Ava Zavora
Publication: September 16th,
2013 (First published August 31st, 2013)
Category: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
“You’re the more real to me than any man I’ve ever known …”
To book blogger Eden, Adam is
the embodiment of every literary fantasy she’s ever had. Intelligent, wickedly
funny, sexy, and attentive – he and his fascinating life seem right out of a
novel. Their whirlwind relationship is so intense and all consuming that soon
she can’t imagine being with anyone else.
But there’s one little thing
that’s keeping Adam and Eden from their happily ever after.
They’ve never met. She doesn’t
even know what he looks like.
Despite how hard she’s fallen
for him and how he makes her feel, Eden’s doubts begin to threaten their
passionate love affair. Why is he so mysterious? Why does he seem reluctant to
meet her? What is Adam hiding?
Afraid that she’s being made a
fool of, Eden is forced to choose between her heart and her head. Is Adam too
good to be true, as her common sense is telling her, or is the truth more
startling than fiction?
GIVEAWAY
Prize(s):
1 – $25 Amazon gift card {INT}
3 – eBook copies (Kindle or Nook) of Dear Adam by Ava Zavora {INT}
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Dear Adam book blitz
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EXCERPT #1
"Eden,
no one who knows me would ever believe how we met. Or that I am now a willing
slave to our e-mails and Skype talks. You have to understand how strange this
is for me. Two weeks ago, if a friend of mine had told me he found a woman online,
I wouldn't hesitate telling him to run the other way and not look back."
"But
we haven't met," she reminded him. She debated on whether or not to bring
up the topic that had lately begun to insinuate itself into her every other
thought.
"When,"
she started to ask hopefully. A definite when, not if. "When do you think
we'll be able to meet?"
It
worried her that he hadn't asked yet to meet her. Was she not enticing enough?
Was she taking the whole thing too seriously? Was he still deciding if she could
be trusted? Despite how much time they've spent together, she was starting to
doubt herself. Maybe he didn't think she was worth flying halfway across the
world.
His
reply was swift. "Six months." His tone was firm. This topic was
non-negotiable. "At least."
"Six
months!" Eden exclaimed.
"I
could be there tomorrow," he relented, softening a little. "But I
can't leave my business for too long. It's at a critical phase at the moment
and I need to be here to make sure nothing gets overlooked. And for our first
meeting, I'd want us to have at least a week, maybe two. More importantly, we
can’t rush things, Edie."
"I'm
not saying tomorrow," Eden said, deflated. "But six months?"
He
cautioned against rushing things, but earlier he was hinting of a future
together. It was becoming more difficult each day to let him go, no matter how
much they e-mailed, no matter how long they talked. Even in the midst of
conversation, she would be overwhelmed with an unexpected ache of missing him.
His physical absence was a hollow, ever present void.
"We
could be really amazing, you and I. But if we are going to do this, I want to
do it properly. I want it to last. And that takes time. The best things are
worth waiting for. We are worth waiting for. When it’s right," he
said in a voice that was unshakably certain, "Name the place. Name the
date. Name the hour. And I will fly anywhere in the world to meet you."
EXCERPT #2
“You
are pulling back. I knew it. I don’t understand. What have I done?” His
anguished voice was barely above a whisper.
Eden
sank down to the floor and drew her knees up. She was helpless, falling so
fast, falling so hard, she was losing her grip on everything that was
substantial in her life.
“Adam,
do you know what I realized when I couldn’t reach you tonight? How easily you
could disappear from my life if you wanted to. I don’t know where you live. I
don’t know how to get a hold of you outside of Skype and e-mail. If you shut
those accounts down, then I would have nothing at all. I could pass you on the
street and not know it was you!”
“I
just missed one phone call. One. And already you’re pushing me away. Eden, I’d
do anything, anything to prove to you I’m here to stay. I would never just
disappear from your life. Between the two of us, it would be you who would
leave me.”
“Do
you care for me?”
“My
god, you know I do.”
“You
would do anything?”
“Yes,”
he replied without hesitation.
“So
if I asked you right now to send me a picture, to video call – you’d do it?”
There
was silence on the other end. Her heart instantly felt leaden.
When
he spoke, it was with despair. “If it came to that, I suppose I would have to
find a way to do it.”
Eden
slumped in defeat. “No, Adam. I would never force you to do it, knowing how
much pain it would cause you. I would hate myself if I did that to you.”
She
started crying.
“Eden,”
he pleaded. “I’ll get a phone number you can call so if you can’t reach me
through Skype, you’ll have another way.”
“Get
a phone number? What about the number you have now?”
“This
number will be yours alone. The others are for business acquaintances, friends.
Those who don’t mean as much to me.”
“You
have more than one number?”
“I
have four.”
“Four?
You know who else has multiple phones? Criminals. Drug dealers.”
“It’s
not for illegal purposes. I have a phone number for people I only do business
with. One for friends and relatives. One for people I don’t want to hear from
but I’m forced to be in contact with occasionally. And I still have my UK
number. So that makes four. It will be five when I get the one that’s just for
you.”
Eden
shook her head. “It’s like you’re giving me a temporary number so that if we
don’t work out, you can just dispose of it and you won’t lose all your other
contacts.”
“That’s
not true. I wish I could explain to you better but I can’t. Please understand
that it’s for your own good.”
“My
own good,” she repeated. She felt drained all of a sudden. “When will we meet,
Adam? You’re talking about building a life but we still haven’t made plans to
meet. Is it all just a fantasy?”
GUEST POST
Inspiration behind Dear Adam
Movies and novels with a series of letters or emails
In Dear Adam,
book blogger Eden enters a passionate online relationship with a mysterious
Englishman named Adam. Although they eventually talk over the phone, their
communication begins with tweets, then progresses to e-mails, chats, and texts,
the modern reincarnations of the old-fashioned love letter. Because they
communicate this way, Dear Adam can
be characterized as an epistolary novel (one written in the form of a series of
letters).
Two of my favorite movies of all time are
epistolary, involving real letters or e-mails.
Who hasn't seen You've
Got Mail, where two rival bookstore owners unknowingly send each other
flirtatious e-mails under the Internet monikers of NY152 and shopgirl?
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
• Describe Dear
Adam in five words.
Dramatic. Romantic. Sexy. Intelligent. Unexpected.
• What inspired
the idea behind the book?
Sometime
last year, I saw the movie Catfish.
Then got sucked into the TV show, which is so addictive. And then the whole
Manti Te'o cauldron of strangeness. Online relationships seemed to explode onto
the mainstream in a space of a few months. The idea of falling in love
with someone you've never met just fascinated me.
• What was the
most challenging part of writing it?
Editing
is the bane of my existence! But a very important step in the process so
I try to do multiple rounds until I am to my limit. Then do a few more
just to be safe.
• Adam and Eden
have a passionate love affair, though they have yet to meet. Describe
the romance either before or after they do meet.
Even
before they meet, Adam and Eden have a very intense chemistry intellectually,
emotionally, and even physically. They do everything they can to have the
strongest connection possible until they feel closer to each other than with
anyone else they've ever met. Do they meet? I will not say ...
• How are
you like (or not like) your characters?
Like
Adam and Eden, I am a passionate bibliophile. If ever I was to fall in love
with a stranger online, striking up a conversation with me about books would be
a straight path to my heart!
• Besides
writing, what other artistic talents do you have?
Not
sure if it's a talent, but I dabble in photography/visual arts. One night
I was tired of editing my manuscript (see question #3, above) so to take a
break I decided to make covers for fake books mentioned in Dear Adam. That was the creative jolt I needed and went back to
editing refreshed.
• You're
stressed. What's the first thing you do or reach for?
CHOCOLATE!
(Another thing I have in common with Eden)
• Are you
currently writing another book?
I
am in the middle of an epic historical fantasy, which is in terrible need of
editing. Woe is me.
• Your automatic
buy-list authors:
Kate
Morton, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Laini Taylor, Elizabeth Kostova, Dan Brown (but only
because my mom wants to read him ... shhh ... )
• What advice
would you give aspiring authors?
"Butt
in chair" is the best advice I've ever heard. Also related is
"Published writers are writers who have learned how to finish."
In her childhood, Ava Zavora used to ride water buffaloes and wade in swamps. When she discovered books, she would go adventuring with Anne of Green Gables, the Pevensies, Bilbo Baggins, or Alanna of Trebond. She incurred her mother's displeasure for reading too many romance novels, so she learned to hide them and read underneath covers with a flashlight late at night. Now, she travels and write dark fairy tales and romantic novels about adventurous women. And she still stays up too late reading, even though she doesn't get in trouble for it anymore.
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